10086 Sunset Boulevard

Jesus is not going to suffer for your sins, Michael. Nope, not this one. You can’t pass it off to a higher power.

Michael Vick finally spoke today and responded as though he’d been accused of knitting, instead of being part of heinous crimes against man’s best friend. Remember, he committed these crimes deliberately and maliciously - just for kicks. He is/was a rich man and could have done anything with the money and he made the choice to pointlessly cause great suffering and death to dogs who had no choice in the matter.

I have been following the Michael Vick story with interest, mostly to see what action the NFL is going to take against one of their top money makers. I can’t see that they have any choice but to completely distance themselves from this individual at any cost. It’s so important to send the message that his actions are unacceptable and will not be tolerated by the NFL or society.

Today Michael Vick finally spoke, explaining that he was a football player, not a public speaker. Easy to see the downside of those football scholarships. Perhaps sports scholarships should include Basic English 101: How to Save Your Sorry Ass When the Shit Hits the Fan. I tried to listen to Vick’s scripted apology with an open mind, really, I did. But all I could hear was a man talking about himself, how what he did was wrong and immature, not a man truly ready to atone. Torturing animals is not immature, it’s how many killers start the ball rolling. It’s a dead giveaway that you are dealing with a severely flawed character and as for the soul, well that’s his lot to live with.

Michael Vick lost all credibility…..oh, wait, he already had…… when he said: “I’m upset with myself and through this situation I’ve found Jesus and asked him for forgiveness and turned my life over to God, and I think that’s the right thing to do as of right now.”

God doesn’t like it when people hurt his creatures and I’m pretty sure Vick’s special place in hell starts now.

While I have been enjoying a happy, healthy summer, things have not been going as well for my longtime companion – my computer. It’s lasted longer than any relationship I’ve had, but it looks like this too has come to pass. The poor thing got passed around a bit, when my life was in turmoil, so it’s really no wonder that eventually it came down with a nasty infection. I tried curing it, but it’s just a tired old antique, a ten year old hard drive and it’s time for it to retire. I might work on it and turn it into a word processor of sorts, just for old times sake.

So getting on the computer this summer has kind of gone like this: “Do I work on the computer today, or bang my head against the wall.” Most days, banging my head against the wall seemed a better option.

That all changed last weekend, when I went to pick up my brand new hard drive. I’m fortunate enough to have a computer wiz for a brother and so he built a hard drive for me, custom tailored to my needs with no pre-installed crapware - for the cost of the parts only. He doesn’t exactly have extra time on his hands, what with work, home and school age children, so I am extremely grateful. I now have tons of memory for all my imaging programs, more memory than I’ll ever need to use. I’m quite overwhelmed. I can now download things onto my computer that I never would have been able to before – like Google Earth and Blender. Then there are podcasts and streaming videos that actually stream. My brain hurts from it all - it’s not as well equipped with memory as the new hard drive.

What a summer to have computer problems, when there is so much to write about! On the T.V. front alone. This was the summer that brought us Boy Shakira who appeared on America’s Got Talent. Did you see him? I don’t know what was funnier – an overweight thirty year old Hispanic man who’s joy comes from impersonating sex symbols while his proud mother stands in the wings, or David Hasselhoff squirming in discomfort while Boy Shakira shook his stuff on the stage. Anyone who makes me laugh myself out of my chair is alright with me. I was even enjoying David Hasselhoff, until the finale when he got up and did that God-awful, lame-assed, over the top version of This is the Moment for the finale of the show. It was horrible - who sings like that? Lounge singers? Beauty pageant MCs? If you missed it and your toes need a good curling, here is the YouTube link.

Oh, and then there was the Cat Deeley Disaster Dress she wore for the finale of So You Think You Can Dance? The woman already sticks out like a sore thumb - she’s an Amazon, or the dancers are very tiny people. She’s like Glinda the Good Witch from The Wizard of Oz, surrounded by well proportioned Munchkins. Maybe that was the look she was going for? The butterflies in her hair made me wonder if she was supposed to be a meadow, or maybe a birds nest, but then I think she must have been trying for an Ostrich look . An ostrich nesting in a meadow, that’s it! Or maybe it was just a case of wanting everyone to be looking at her, instead of the dancers. Attention at any price. Click here to get a good look, although if you didn’t watch the show, you don’t get the benefit of seeing that the dress didn’t move, or that the tulle fabric exploded all the way around to her butt.

I’m sure there must have been more notable television moments, but that’s all that comes to mind. I’m sure I did more than just watch bad TV this summer, so more updates to come.